This is a study sleep relaxing audio that I compiled from a World War II wire recordings of a test flight of a PBM Mariner.

I recently found these in wire recordings from my father’s estate, which have been lost over 50 years. My father said growing up that he was stationed at a small island in the South Pacific in 1944. He described this as a very small island or atoll that was “Hell and Gone” from practically every other known naval air base at the time. I gathered that it was used as a maintenance base and maybe a skip for long crossings. He said a lot of secret flights came and went with no notice, no origination or destination. He said they also did prototype and modification testing for manufacturers.

I compiled this from four wire recorder reels which my father said the engineers from the manufacturer of the PBM-3 sea plane (Beechcraft?) recorded to look for some kind of issue. What the problem was they were looking for I do not know. I also do not know where the microphones were placed in the body of the seaplane itself. My father did say that there were multiple microphones that the engineer had all wired together that went into port and starboard wire recorders.

The only thing he remembered about these recordings in particular was that they had worked so hard and upon takeoff they just about swallowed up a flock of seagulls in the engines. He said that the pilot had to swerve on the runway to avoid a flock that was taking off. I believe you can hear them in this recording, unless that is some other sound that is flight related.

He said they had to do the test when there was no wind and commented that for hours below the ocean was like glass. I guess this was the only way they could know if what they were hearing on the recordings was a problem and not simply the plane being knocked around by turbulence or other.

I bought a Chicago Webster wire recorder player to play these. The technology itself has a frequency response of 20 hertz to 12,000 hertz… which is quite impressive for the day. Perhaps that’s why they used the wire recorders. I do not know what the technology was available at the time.

I included the pictures in case anyone else might have some clues as to where this island might be located. Over the years even before I found these recordings I had tried to look on maps to see if I could find any islands that had island formations around them like those seen in the pictures. My father did indicate that there was absolutely nothing there except quonset hut barracks and a runway. He said the life there was incredibly boring.

Please feel free to add any commentary or ideas about any information you know of that reveals the particulars of you these recordings, the island where my father may have been stationed, or any other information.

Thank you and enjoy!